Nasir Tyabji, a Visiting Professor at ISID since September 2008, is an Economic Historian with interests in the areas of technology, innovation and industrialisation. After retiring as the Director and Professor in the Centre for Jawaharlal Nehru Studies at the Jamia Millia Islamia (2005-2007), he continued his association with that university as a Visiting Professor at the Centre (2007-2009). He was earlier a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Studies in Science Policy of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (2001-2005), a Fellow of the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Trust (1999-2001) and a Professorial Fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (1994-1999). He has held the Reserve Bank of India Chair Professorship (1990-1994), and earlier a Fellowship (1982-1990), at the Madras Institute of Development Studies. Starting his career with International Computers Ltd. in London during 1970-72, Nasir Tyabji worked in Mumbai with CIDCO (1972-73), the Indian Institute of Public Administration in Delhi (1973-1980), and the Administrative Staff College of India in Hyderabad (1980-82).

He was educated at the Institute of Science, Mumbai (Mathematics and Physics), New College, Oxford (Engineering Science and Economics), and Jawaharlal Nehru University (Ph.D. in Economics).

Nasir Tyabji’s books The Small Industries Policy in India (1989) and Colonialism, Chemical Technology and Industry in Southern India, 1880-1937 (1995) were published by Oxford University Press. The third book Industrialization and Innovation: The Indian Experience was published by Sage in 2000.

His more recent writings include:

• “Of Traders, Usurers and British Capital: Managing Agencies and the Dalmia Jain Case” in S.R. Hashim et al (eds.) Indian Industrial Development and Globalisation: Essays in Honour of Professor S.K. Goyal (Delhi, Academic Foundation: 2008)
• “Re-Tayloring the Castoffs: Technology and Perpetuation of the Third World” Paper presented at the Seminar on Rethinking the Third World: Idea, Concept, Category and Relevance organised by the Academy of Third World Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, January 2007.
• “Business Culture in Post-War India: Evading Regulation or Evading Discipline?” Paper presented at the Conference on Social Consciousness and Culture in Modern India, New Delhi, February 2006, to be published in a volume in the series of the Project of the History of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture.
• “Innovation Regimes, Industrial Relations and Lost Opportunities in Indian Industry” paper presented at the Indo-US Symposium on The Culture of Innovation in Science and Technology in India: Opportunities Seized and Opportunities Lost organized by The University of Hyderabad and the University of Iowa, Hyderabad, January 2006
• “Jawaharlal Nehru and Science and Technology: The 1958 Scientific Policy Resolution Reconsidered” paper presented at the Seminar on History of Science and Technology in India, organised by the Department of History, University of Hyderabad, September 2005
• “Globalisation and Chemistry within the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, 1945-2005” paper presented at the Symposium on Globalisation and Diversity: Modern Chemistry and Chemical Technology organized by the Commission on the History of Modern Chemistry during the XXII International Congress of History of Science, Beijing, July 2005.
• “Exemplar of Academia- Industry Interchange: The Department of Chemical Technology at Bombay University” paper presented at the Conference on Industrial-Academic Relationships in the Chemical and Molecular Sciences organized by the Commission on the History of Modern Chemistry and the Chemical Heritage Foundation, Philadelphia, October 2002, published in Ambix LI (2004), 2:149-166
• “Learning to Innovate vs. Learning to Manufacture: Towards an Alternative Technology Strategy” Paper presented at the Seminar on Alternatives before India in the Context of Globalisation organised by the D.R. Gadgil Centenary Committee and Social Scientist, Jawaharlal Nehru University, September 2002.
• “Acquiring Know-Why vs. Licensed Manufacture: Penicillin in Nehru’s India” paper presented at the Symposium on Shifting Centres and Emerging Peripheries: Global Patterns in Twentieth Century Chemistry, organised by the Commission on History of Modern Chemistry during the XXI International Congress of History of Science, Mexico City, July 2001 published in Technology and Culture XXXXV (2004), 2: 331-345
• “Jawaharlal Nehru, Big Business and the Liaquat Ali Khan Budget of 1947” in Sujata Patel et al (Eds.) Thinking Social Science in India: Essays in Honour of Alice Thorner (Sage Publications, New Delhi: 2002).